Sex and disability: SBS Insight, Tuesday 12 April

Imagine - you’ve been married to your partner for 25 years. You live with them, love them, are sexually attracted to them, but physical intimacy? Almost impossible.

This is the reality for David and Jenni Heckendorf, who both have profound cerebral palsy that greatly limits their mobility. In order to have sex, they must use the services of a sex worker; a process of extreme trust, vulnerability and financial cost.They lobbied to use their NDIS funding to access their sex worker, but others are restricted by state laws and regulations around sex work.

Rachel Wotton is one such sex worker, who works with clients with physical and intellectual disabilities.

What if your child had an intellectual disability? How do you teach them about all the nuances of sex and sexuality: consent, attraction, pleasure, emotion, consequences?Mary McMahon has helped her gay son negotiate porn. Jarrod McGrath teaches sex-ed classes for children with intellectual disabilities.

And what happens, if and when kids come along? What is the most ethical course of action?

This week, Insight is looking at two issues that are definitely not mutually exclusive: sex and disability.